Thunderbolt External Hard Drive

Summary :

What is a Thunderbolt hard drive? Do you know Thunderbolt interface? Is Thunderbolt the same as USB-Type-C? If you don't understand these questions, you can read this post, in which MiniTool introduces Thunderbolt interface and Thunderbolt hard drive to you.

LaCie Rugged Thunderbolt 5TB External Hard Drive - STFS5000800. 5 out of 5 stars (4) Total Ratings 4, $254.99 New. LaCie 2big Thunderbolt 3 20TB, External, 7200 RPM (STGB20000400) Hard Drive. 4.7 out of 5 stars (3) Total Ratings 3, $1,004.00 New. OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dock. Thunderbolt 3 dock + dual-drive RAID storage solution. Dual Thunderbolt 3; Up to 773MB/s; Up to 2 x 2.5' or 3.5' Drives; JBOD, Span, RAID 0/1.

Quick Navigation :

Introduction to Thunderbolt Hard Drive and Thunderbolt Interface

As the name implies, a Thunderbolt hard drive is a hard drive with a Thunderbolt interface, which is a technology developed by Intel in collaboration with Apple.

Thunderbolt is a data transmission protocol combining PCI Express data transmission technology and DisplayPort display technology. Therefore, it can transmit data and video signals at the same time.

So far, the Thunderbolt interface has developed to the third generation: Thunderbolt 3. Thunderbolt 1 and 2 are integrated with Mini DisplayPort (a physical port), while Thunderbolt 3 is integrated with USB Type-C (a physical port). Therefore, Thunderbolt 3 is incompatible with Thunderbolt 1 and 2.

In this post, I will mainly focus on Thunderbolt 3, because Thunderbolt 1 and 2 are not popular due to the following reason: their physical ports are Apple Mini DPs, which cannot be used in other electronic devices; therefore, not many manufacturers support them.

Tip: Thunderbolt 3 also has three versions: DP (Double Port) version uses a PCIe 3.0 ×4 link to provide 2 interfaces; SP (Single Port) version uses a PCIe 3.0 ×4 link to provide 1 interface; and LP (Low Power) version only provides 1 PCIe 3.0 ×2 interface.

Further Reading:

Thunderbolt interface is usually used as an interface for connecting external devices. Therefore, people usually compare it with the USB interface.

Do you really know USB-Type-C and Thunderbolt 3?

Since the USB Type-C specification was released in 2014, many new 3C devices such as Android mobile devices, laptops, desktops, and even game consoles have begun to use this connection port.

USB Type-C port can accommodate multiple protocols. The more protocols it accommodates, the more functions it can implement. The USB Type-C port can accommodate the following protocols:

Data Transmission Protocols: USB 2.0 (480Mbps), USB 3.0 (5Gbps), USB 3.1 (10Gbps), USB 3.2 (20Gbps), and Thunderbolt 3 (40Gbps). With these data transmission protocols, the USB Type-C can transfer data. In addition, these protocols also partly determine how fast your external hard drive can be.

USB PD (Power Delivery) Protocol: It is one of the current mainstream fast charging protocols. It can increase power transmission through USB cables and connectors to expand the power supply capability of the USB cable bus. The power delivered can reach up to 100W. With this protocol, you can use the USB-Type-C to charge your phone and computer fast.

Thunderbolt external hard drive for mac

Display Port Protocol: It is a digital video transmission protocol that can transmit audio and video simultaneously. With this protocol, you can connect peripheral displays via corresponding adapters to output video and audio, or you can connect external discrete graphics cards to expand graphics performance.

At the same time, you have to face the fact that most of USB interfaces mounted on devices can only transfer data and use USB 3.0 protocol (not to mention USB 3.1 and USB 3.2). Some advanced USB interfaces may integrate USB 3.0 and DP (Display Port) to achieve both data and video transmission.

Only a few full-featured USB interfaces can integrate USB 3.0, DP, and USB PD to realize data transmission, video transmission, and fast charge.

As for Thunderbolt 3 interface, it is the top-level presentation of the USB Type-C interface. It uses Thunderbolt 3 protocol, which must integrate PCI-E data transmission technology and DP technology, but optionally integrate USD PD. In addition, the Thunderbolt 3 protocol is compatible with USB 2.0, 3.0, and 3.1.

Do you know what SSD drive is? This article will explain some SSD Terminologies and help you to fully understand SSD disk.

Best Thunderbolt External Hard Drives

After learning about USB-Type-C and Thunderbolt 3, you may want to know about Thunderbolt 3 hard drives. Thunderbolt 3 is currently the fastest interface in external storage devices. Due to the high transfer rate, the Thunderbolt 3 interface is usually mounted on SSDs to meet the demand for high-speed external disks.

If your computer has a Thunderbolt 3 interface and you need a high-speed external disk to complete some data to HDDs, because SSDs have the risk of data loss when they are not used often.

1. Format to Right File System

If your computer is a Windows PC, you should format it to NTFS, exFAT, etc. If your computer is a Mac PC, you should format it to APFS, HFS+, etc. Whether it is Windows or MAC, they have their own disk management tools to help you format the Thunderbolt external hard drive to a right file system.

Thunderbolt External Hard Drive For Mac

Let's take Windows PC as an example. Follow the steps below to format your drive to NTFS file system:

Step 1: Press 'Windows + R' keys simultaneously to call out Run box. Then, type 'diskmgmt.msc' into the Run dialogue box and hit Enter key to open Disk Management.

Step 2: Right-click the partition on the Thunderbolt external hard drive and then choose Format... from the context menu.

Step 3: In the pop-up window, choose NTFS file system and keep other parameters as default. Then, click OK button to start the reformatting process.

2. 4K Alignment

To make the Thunderbolt external hard drive 4K aligned, you need the help of a third-party program like MiniTool Partition Wizard, in which 4k alignment is a free feature. If your computer is a Windows PC, MiniTool Partition Wizard is suitable for you. Refer to the following steps to 4k align the drive:

Step 1: Click the above button to free download MiniTool Partition Wizard. Then, install and launch it on your PC.

Step 2: Go to its main interface and right-click the partition on the Thunderbolt external hard drive. Then, choose Align.

Step 3: Click the Apply button to execute the pending operations.

3. Back up the Thunderbolt SSD

The simplest way is to use Copy/Cut + Paste feature. But if the files are too many or large, you can clone the drive. To clone the drive, you may also need the help of MiniTool Partition Wizard. Please follow the steps below:

Step 1: Download, install, and launch MiniTool Partition Wizard. Then, go to its main interface and right-click the partition on the Thunderbolt hard drive to choose Copy.

Step 2: Choose an Unallocated space as the destination and click Next button. Then, follow the wizard to finish the process.

Step 3: Click the Apply button to execute the pending operations.

Want to get best performance from SSD (solid state drive) in Windows 10/8.1/8/7? You can find step-by-step tutorials from this post.

Thunderbolt External Hard Drive FAQ

A Thunderbolt hard drive is a hard drive with Thunderbolt interface, which is a technology developed by Intel in collaboration with Apple. So far, the Thunderbolt interface has developed to the third generation: Thunderbolt 3. Thunderbolt 3 hard drives are usually external SSDs with high performance.

Portable Thunderbolt Drive

It can be used to connect a wide range of peripheral types to your computer. You can use it to connect one or more displays; use it to connect a high-performance Thunderbolt external hard drive or other USB drives; use it to connect a graphics card, expanding GPU; use it to connect a Thunderbolt Dock, expanding ports; and so on.

Certainly not, the Thunderbolt 1 and 2 use Mini DisaplyPort interface, not USB-Type-C. Thunderbolt 3 uses USB-Type-C port and you can distinguish it from USB-Type-C port by a lightning sign. It is the top-level presentation of the USB Type-C port.

However, the Thunderbolt 3 interface and USB-Type-C port are very different, because the USB-Type-C may lack some features.

Thunderbolt External Hard Drive Case

To take advantages of Thunderbolt interface, the best Thunderbolt external hard drives are always SSDs. Here are 3 Thunderbolt external hard drive SSDs recommended for you:

  1. Samsung X5 Portable SSD
  2. OWC Envoy Pro EX (VE) Thunderbolt 3 Portable SSD
  3. TEKQ Rapide Thunderbolt 3 Portable SSD

Bottom Line

Have this post answered your doubts about Thunderbolt interface and Thunderbolt hard drive? Do you have any difficulty in picking a suitable Thunderbolt external hard drive? Do you have difficulty in managing your hard drive?

If you have any problem, please leave a comment below or contact us via [email protected]. We will reply to you as soon as possible.